The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 20 December 2008 / Leave a Comment

Just as he was starting to look at his best, composed and at ease in his homeland, Ernie Els begins round three of the South African Open with a triple bogey. Meanwhile, in America, Boo Weekley derails after picking up a ludicrous penalty and our man tries to make a silk purse at the Volvo Asian masters...

To make it worse for backers of the Big Easy, myself included, Ernie Els' triple bogey at the first was initally chalked up as only a double, which proved costly for me.

The cricket was over-running on Sky so there were no live pictures and given I live in the back of beyond I haven't got the fastest internet link so can't watch on the net either. I was at a considerable disadvantage but I was daft enough to top up on the big man at [8.4] and it soon became obvious that wasn't a smart move.

The leaderboard corrected itself, Ernie failed to make birdie on the par five third and things had gone pear, big time. He did manage to make a couple of birdies to drag himself back to the fringes of contention and then the weather turned. As the leaders finished their first nine holes the wind got up rapidly and changed the entire complexion of the event. All of a sudden the low rounds of the morning's play looked impossible for the later starters. Ernie made yet another triple and it seemed only Westwood and Goosen weren't dropping shots like confetti.

It was ugly but it was all about experience, the old heads didn't panic and when the Goose birdied the 14th hole I jumped aboard at [15.0].

Then the wind dropped as quickly as it had blown up, benign conditions accompanied the latter starters over the last few holes and leader Lee Westwood took advantage, birdying the final hole. He now leads by two from Gareth Maybin and Michael Lorenzo-Vera and by three from George Coetzee, Rory McIlroy and Retief Goosen.

Can he hold on? He hasn't won in a while and I certainly wouldn't advocate backing him but I'm not going to take him on either. If I hadn't already staked enough this week I would but for now I'm going to put the spade down and hope for a nice tasty Goose for Christmas.

In the States my sole pick, Boo Weekley, did well enough on day one of the Chevron World Challenge and he continued in much the same fashion for the first nine holes of his second round last night before derailing after bogeying the 13th.

Boo's an immense talent but doesn't come across as the sharpest tool in the box and what he did on the 16th was ludicrous. Having made a grotesque three putt bogey on the 15th he hit his second shot on the par five 16th to what looked like a position adjacent to the grandstand. At the time I thought that wouldn't be too bad, free drop and possibly even a birdie from there. It wasn't completely obvious what had happened but the commentators suggested that he didn't even ask for relief, instead he moved a loose impediment and picked up a penalty!

My only hope now is that Weekley comes out angry and goes silly under par tonight; he's not completely doomed and only four off the lead.

Jim Furyk leads on five under but he hasn't looked convincing for me and I'm looking elsewhere. Camilo Villegas came flying back on the back nine yesterday and is in the tie for second alongside Anthony Kim, who couldn't buy a putt yesterday and KJ Choi, who made a surprisingly high number of errors during his second round but bounced back well and for me is now the value play. I've not gone mad but I've had a small interest in the Korean at [9.4].

At the Volvo Asian Masters it's a case of trying my best to manufacture a silk purse from the ugliest of sow's ears. For some bizarre reason I ended up backing more than just Wiratchant. By the time they got under way I also backed Jeev Milkha Singh, Thongchai Jaidee, Bae Sang-Moon and Chapchai Nirat!

I don't know what came over me, I just convinced myself that the in-form jollies would be there all the way and then thought I'd add a few savers.

A very bad plan that proved to be as it was obvious by the end of the first round that none of them were at the races. By the end of round two Nirat had at least got back in the mix with a 66 but the rest were dead in the water.

I topped up on Nirat as this morning's third round came to an end and all will be forgotten if he can get the job done, a scenario that's now quite likely. It's a weak looking leaderboard and I fancy his chances.

So with little more than 24 hours of the golf betting year left I'm preying for a few miracles to finish the year in style, whatever transpires I'll update as usual on Monday.

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